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Author Notes: Khau Swe, as these noodles are called, originate from the Golden Triangle area that encompasses Myanmar and Thailand. I slurped a bowlful in Chiang Mai, but Myanmar is
still a mystery to me. I hope you enjoy my hearty spoon and fork soup. —nykavi

Food52 Review: Nykavi's brilliant "fork and spoon" soup is genuine cold winter Sunday fare. It was also quite an education for me: I've never prepared a soup's vegetable base in this way before (I didn't have shrimp paste, so I used shrimp powder instead) . The flavor changes remarkably as a result, and nothing interferes, texture-wise, with the tender chunks of chicken, bits of boiled egg, and silken rice noodles. The brazen 2 tablespoons of chili powder first caught my eye; I even added a few drops of Sambal Olek, too. In short, I love this soup, and I am so glad to have precious leftovers in the freezer. Thank you, nykavi, for taking me outside my comfort zone into a brand new one. —boulangere

Serves 4 hungry people

2 medium yellow onions

4 garlic cloves

1teaspoon ginger, grated

1teaspoon shrimp paste (belachan)

1tablespoon water

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1/4teaspoon turmeric powder

1/2teaspoon chili powder

1 1/2pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1 14 oz can coconut milk

2teaspoons kosher salt

1packet rice noodles

1/2cup shallots, thinly sliced and fried to a crisp

3 eggs, boiled and chopped

2tablespoons chili powder

2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped fine

2 limes, quartered

Peel and chop the onions and garlic cloves into chunks. The size doesn't matter as they are to be ground.

Place the onions, garlic, ginger, shrimp paste, and water in a blender or food processor. Pulse well till you have a smooth paste.

Clean and chop the chicken into bite size pieces. Wash well and drain.

Heat canola and sesame oils in a Dutch oven.

Add the onion paste and sauté for 3 to 5 minutes to get the rawness out of the onions.

Add turmeric and chili powder . Stir to incorporate them into onion mix.

The chicken goes in next. Sauté the chicken for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring well to coat with spice mixture.

Add coconut milk and 1 cup of water . Stir well and bring the soup to a boil.

Lower the flame, and let the soup come to a simmer .

Cover the saucepan and let the soup simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Fill a large, deep saucepan with water and bring to a boil on a high flame.

Add rice noodles to the boiling water. Take the saucepan off the heat and let rice noodles steep in water for 20 minutes. Drain well and keep aside.

Assemble the soup with a large helping of rice noodles in a soup bowl. Top with ladlefuls of soup. The noodles should swim in coconut broth. Add pieces of chicken. Garnish with fried shallots, chopped egg, a sprinkling of chili powder, some cilantro, and a large squirt of lime juice.

I use a blender to make the paste as it does come out smooth and creamy. If you don't have one then by all means go with the processor but add a little liquid ( 2-3 tablespoons water or canola oil ) to help the paste along. Hope this works for you.

The onion/garlic mixture never got to a "paste" consistency for me, more of a very fine mince, and I kept the food processor going for quite a while. Any suggestions? The soup had a good taste, but the onion mix gave it a not-quite-smooth consistency.

I'm so glad you enjoyed the recipe. I like the idea of grinding dried shrimp!! As for the coconut milk. I use canned coconut milk which never breaks. Prior to this convenience I would scrape and squeeze milk from fresh coconut which would break if I didn't add 1-2 tablespoons of chickpea flour. My suggestion would be to dissolve some into the coconut milk before you add it to the broth. Most Khau Swe recipes call for this step. Since the canned variety doesn't curdle I eliminated it. Sorry

Thank you for the delicious (and very accessible) recipe! It made an indulgent lunch for me yesterday and I'm looking forward to the leftovers today. I didn't have shrimp paste, so I just ground up some of the dried shrimp from my Chinese relatives. That worked for me! My only question was: did the coconut milk break in your soup? Mine did, and I'm wondering if I should have mixed the coconut milk more before I poured it in or maybe the chicken/oil was too hot...

Thanks for the vote of confidence SallyNyan. I used to make an earlier version with fish sauce and chickpea flour but I prefer the belachan paste. I love and cook Burmese food. I hope I could talk to you about my discrepancies .

As a Burmese who routinely cooks traditional food, I can confirm that recipe is quite accurate! I'd like to suggest a few alterations, though. Now I can't confirm this for the Thai version, but the traditional Burmese version doesn't typically use belacan. Instead, we use a powder made from ground yellow lentils, chicken stock and fish sauce. A vegetarian version can be made by substituting soy sauce and veggie stock for fish , and dried tofu skin for chicken. We also use yellow, wheat noodles instead of white, rice noodles. :)

I don't have a set recipe (I usually cook to taste), but I'd say about 1-1.5 cups of stock (you'll be replacing .5 a cup of the water in the recipe) and 2-3 tbsps--or to taste--of soy sauce. This is just my guesstimation. Nykavi, if you've got any further suggestions, feel free to jump in! This is your recipe after all!